Data by the UAE Central Bank showed that real estate loans by banks increased by 15.7% during the first ten months of last year. They amounted to AED164 billion (some US$47 billion) by the end of last October, compared with AED141.7 billion (US$38.6 billion) by the end of December 2009.

The data indicated that mortgage loans accounted for 15.8% of the total loans and 15.5% of total deposits with the banking sector in the UAE. The share of mortgage loans by the end of 2009 amounted to about 14% of the total loan portfolio and 14.4% of total deposits with the local banking sector.

The data shows the share of mortgage loans rose to 22.7% of the total bank claims to the private sector by the end of October 2010, amounting to AED721.7 billion, compared with a share of 19.6% at the end of December 2009.